An error occurred while saving the snapshot: The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

•  Backup for virtual machine on vVOL datastore fails with following error when taking a snapshot: "An error occurred while saving the snapshot: The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error. An error occurred while taking a snapshot: The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error."

• Once this issue occurs, backup of the VM will fail with the following error on the backup solution: "Backup task failed with error: type: kVixError error_msg: "Wrong transport nbd used for [############] rfc4122.005258b4-f025-4044-####-############/vm_name.vmdk instead of nbdssl transport.""

Environment

VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Cause

• From the VM's vmware.log (/vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/vm_name/vmware.log), it is observed that vectored snapshot creation fails due to the target vVOL encountering a vendor error:

  2026-02-13T13:24:09.368Z In(05) vcpu-0 - SNAPSHOT: SnapshotConfigInfoOpenVmsd: Creating new snapshot dictionary, '/vmfs/volumes/vvol:0000000800004006-################/rfc4122.005258b4-f025-4044-####-############/######.vmsd.usd'.
2026-02-13T13:24:09.394Z In(05) vcpu-0 - SNAPSHOT: SnapshotDumperOpenFromInfo: Creating checkpoint file /vmfs/volumes/vvol:0000000800004006-################/rfc4122.005258b4-f025-4044-####-############/######-Snapshot51.vmsn
2026-02-13T13:24:09.404Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VVolObjNotifySnapshot: isEnabled: 1, state: 1
2026-02-13T13:24:09.404Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VVolObjNotifySnapshot: State changed to VEC_SNAP_SNAPSHOT_IN_PROG.
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2026-02-13T13:24:09.404Z In(05) vcpu-0 - VVolObjConvertToVectoredSnapArgs: Processed vvol:rfc4122.d3eca966-9de3-4b9c-8a5a-############, snapUUID:rfc4122.4d0393d4-7087-4836-####-############.
2026-02-13T13:24:39.922Z In(05) vcpu-0 - 2391607:VVOLLIB : VVolLib_IpcStorageFaultToVVolLibError:765: Storage Fault STORAGE_FAULT (22): STORAGE_FAULT: Fault occurred while processing. /
2026-02-13T13:24:39.922Z Er(02) vcpu-0 - 2391607:VVOLLIB : VVolLib_VectoredSnapshotVVol:7034: Failed with error (9) The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error
2026-02-13T13:24:39.922Z Er(02) vcpu-0 - 2391607:VVOLLIB : VVolLib_VectoredSnapshotVVol:7038: Vectored VvolSnapshot failed: The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error.
2026-02-13T13:24:39.922Z Er(02) vcpu-0 - OBJLIB-VVOLOBJ : VVolObjNotifySnapshot: Could not take vectored snapshot.
2026-02-13T13:24:39.922Z In(05) vcpu-0 - SNAPSHOT::SnapshotFinishCreate: ObjLib_NotifySnapshot failed: The VVol target encountered a vendor specific error
2026-02-13T13:24:39.959Z In(05) vcpu-0 - OBJDESC-LIB :  Failed to unlink '/vmfs/volumes/vvol:0000000800004006-################/rfc4122.005258b4-f025-4044-####-############/######-Snapshot51.vmem': No such file or directory (20004)

• From the var/run/log/vvold.log of host where the impacted VM resided when the snapshot creation failed, it can be seen that the snapshot creation fails due to a transient connection failure. Looking further it can be seen that it fails with the error "STORAGE_FAULT / Fault occurred while processing.":

  2026-02-13T13:24:38.790Z Wa(164) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp::IsSuccessful [#108847]: snapshotVirtualVolume transient connection-local failure: 1 (TRANSPORT_FAULT / UNKNOWN FAULT) - will retry on another connection
2026-02-13T13:24:38.790Z Wa(164) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp[#108847] ===> Transient failure snapshotVirtualVolume VP (<vasa_provider_name>) retry=true, batchOp=true container=000000080000400689c############ timeElapsed=29381 msecs (#outstanding 0)
2026-02-13T13:24:38.790Z In(166) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp::DoRetry [#108847]: snapshotVirtualVolume got connection-local error (TransportError) from VP (<vasa_provider_name>), will retry on another connection from the same vasa session
2026-02-13T13:24:38.790Z In(166) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp::ExecuteBatch [#108847]: ===> Issuing 'snapshotVirtualVolume' to VP [<vasa_provider_name>:Connected (Outstanding 0/4)]
2026-02-13T13:24:39.919Z In(166) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Delegate: [<vasa_provider_name>] Re-using already active context (00000019d1ceeea0))
2026-02-13T13:24:39.919Z Er(163) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp::IsSuccessful [#108847]: snapshotVirtualVolume transient failure: 22 (STORAGE_FAULT / Fault occurred while processing. / )
2026-02-13T13:24:39.919Z Wa(164) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp[#108847] ===> Transient failure snapshotVirtualVolume VP (<vasa_provider_name>) retry=false, batchOp=true container=000000080000400689c############ timeElapsed=30510 msecs (#outstanding 0)
2026-02-13T13:24:39.919Z Er(163) VVold[2101345]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] VasaOp[#108847] ===> FINAL FAILURE snapshotVirtualVolume, error (STORAGE_FAULT / Fault occurred while processing. / ) VP (<vasa_provider_name>) Container (000000080000400689c############) timeElapsed=30510 msecs (#outstanding 0)
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2026-02-13T13:24:39.920Z Er(163) VVold[2101684]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default IpcCtx=2391130-70] Batch snapshot call failed with error 22: STORAGE_FAULT: Fault occurred while processing. /
2026-02-13T13:24:39.921Z Er(163) VVold[2101684]: [Originator@6876 sub=IpcSvc IpcCtx=2391130-70] HandleRequest: Error handling function VectoredSnapshotVirtualVolume: STORAGE_FAULT: Fault occurred while processing. /
  

• The issue originates from a "vendor specific" issue encountered on the vVOL storage. More insight about this issue cannot be found on the ESX host logs and will need troubleshooting from the storage vendor on the external vVOL storage array.

Resolution

Engage the vVOL storage array vendor to look further into the vendor specific issue.